AMB Property Corporation, a leading developer and owner of industrial real estate, said yesterday it plans to manage between US$1 billion and US$1.5 billion worth of assets in China by 2010.
"Without any doubt, China will surpass Japan as AMB's second-largest market, next only to the United States, our home base," Hamid R. Moghadam, AMB's chairman and chief executive officer, said yesterday in Shanghai. "It will probably take two to three years in terms of the volume or five to 10 years in terms of dollars (the value) as real estate prices in Japan are more expensive than in China."
The company said globally, it expects to operate US$20 billion worth of assets by 2010 and Asia will likely contribute between 20 percent and 25 percent. China is expected to take between 25 percent and 30 percent in its Asian portfolio.
Entering the China market in October 2004, AMB now mainly focuses on Shanghai and the Yangtze River delta region with industrial facilities in Jiuting, Fengxian, Kunshan and Beilun Port in Ningbo in Zhejiang Province.
The company plans to tap the western part of the country such as Chengdu, Chongqing and Xi'an and also seek further opportunities to expand its port facilities in Shenzhen and Tianjin, Thomas F. Marquis, managing director of AMB Property China, said.
AMB is not alone in charting an expansion path in the country. ProLogis, another US developer, owner and manager of distribution facilities which entered China in 2003, said in July it plans to add between one million and 1.5 million square meters of built-up areas annually on average over the coming few years. ProLogis said its annual investment into the country will reach US$300 million to US$500 million.
Sydney-based Goodman Group, the world's second-largest listed industrial property group, also said it plans to more than double its investment on the Chinese mainland and expand its portfolio to more gateway cities across the country in the next 12 months.
The company entered the Chinese mainland market in 2005 and is ambitious to pump US$200 million to US$300 million into the country's property market within a year and expand its operations beyond Shanghai, probably to Guangzhou and Beijing.